A mixed form of the Tahitian and the Rarotongan dialects. An island in the Hervey group, S. Pacific. Example, “mau-tangata” = “men.” W. G.
Aka (1).
A dialect spoken by a hill-tribe to the N. of Assam. It is almost identical with Abor. See Brown’s Table: “Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,” 1837.
Aka (2).
African: sometimes used for the Yoruba, of which it is a sub-dialect.
Akabi, see [Ukuafi].
Akkadian.
A name sometimes given to the language used on the earliest Babylonian bricks, especially those found at Mugheir (Ur), Warka (Erech), Senkareh, Niffer, and other very ancient Mesopotamian cities. The general character of the language is Turanian; but its vocabulary connects it with the dialects of Southern Arabia and Abyssinia, more especially with the Mahra, Galla, and Wolaitsa. The writing is a rude and very complicated cuneiform. It is supposed that the language was spoken in Babylonia from a very early age (B.C. 2500?) to the date of the Assyrian conquest, about B.C. 1300. By that time it had become the language of an extensive literature, and as such, continued to be studied by the more learned Assyrians down to the close of the Empire, B.C. 624. The later Assyrian tablets are to a great extent translations from it. See Rawlinson’s “Ancient Monarchies,” vol. i., pp. 61-69, 2nd ed. G. R.
Akkim.
African: a sub-dialect of Fanti.